Overshadowed in the popular imagination by the figure of Oliver
Cromwell, historians are increasingly coming to recognize the
importance of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, in
shaping the momentous events of mid-seventeenth-century Britain. As
both a military and political figure he played a central role in
first defeating Charles I and then later supporting the restoration
of his son in 1660. England's Fortress shines new light on this
significant yet surprisingly understudied figure through a
selection of essays addressing a wide range of topics, from
military history to poetry. Divided into two sections, the volume
reflects key aspects of Fairfax's life and career which are,
nevertheless, as interconnecting as they are discrete: Fairfax the
soldier and statesman, and Fairfax the husband, horseman and
scholar. This fresh account of Fairfax's reputations and legacy
questions assumptions about neatly demarcated seventeenth-century
chronological, geographic and cultural boundaries. What emerges is
a man who subverts as much as he reinforces assumed characteristics
of martial invincibility, political disengagement and literary
dilettantism.